Gustav Mahler Quotes

“Good-natured and naive, sometimes even childlike, he looks out at the world with fairytale eyes from behind large crystal spectacles. He is modern in every respect. He believes in the future, which left me feeling that I am no more than a grieving 'Romantic'. I can tell you that his presence did me a world of good. I told him as much in a short and fairly emphatic letter, telling him that his music seems to possess the gift of 'transforming people' and of providing a sense of 'catharsis'. That is no small achievement.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“His body was racked with movement and in the semi-darkness he looked like some kind of fairy-tale goblin engaged in a flurry of hocus-pocus. In the harsh spotlight that lit up the rostrum his face was fascinatingly ugly and had a ghastly pallor, ringed as it was by his waving hair. Every little shift in the orchestra was reflected in his sensitive features: one moment he would be dampening something down, which would knot the skin round his eyes into grim folds accompanied by a lifting of his nose; the next moment he would be smiling in confluence with the sweet strains of the orchestra, radiating his approval and enjoyment, so that it was a case of both devils and angels crossing his visage in turn. Lightning flashed from his spectacle lenses with each sharp movement of his head, and from behind the lenses his eyes shone forth, watchful, assertive and demanding attention - every inch of his frame was simultaneously both an instrument of command and a means of expression.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“Brahms' friends in Budapest finally managed to talk him into attending the performance of Don Giovanni - he had initially turned down their invitation, arguing that he preferred to read the score and had never seen or heard a decent performance of the work. He would even prefer a cold beer, he insisted. But in the end he allowed his friends to drag him along to their box, where he demonstratively settled down on a sofa at the back in the hope of enjoying a rest. But it was not long before he was making increasingly inarticulate noises indicative of his enthusiasm, and at the end of the first act he was heard to shout out: 'Most excellent, admirable, what a deuce of a fellow!' He then ran on to the stage and embraced Mahler with typically grumpy cordiality.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“At the age of six, Mahler accepted paid commissions as a composer, something he was never to do in later life, his mother having promised him two kreuzers on condition that he did not make any ink blots on the expensive music manuscript paper.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“will in the world, it is impossible for us to form a coherent or detailed picture of Mahler between the ages of ten and fifteen, a period of decisive importance in terms of his own development, as”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“Es gibt auch die Wunde Mahler; sie will und wird sich nicht schließen, solange es eine menschliche Gesellschaft gibt, die der Versöhnung ermangelt. Von diesem Mangel spricht Mahlers Musik so deutlich wie kaum eine Zweite.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“When I emerged from the Festival Theatre, incapable of uttering a word, I knew I had come to understand all that is greatest and most painful in the world and that I would have to bear it within me, inviolate, for the whole of the rest of my life.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler

“Misery is everywhere. It wears the strangest guises to mock us poor human beings. If you know a single happy person on this earth, tell me his name quickly, before I lose the little courage to face life that I still have.”
― Jens Malte Fischer, Gustav Mahler